Patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia show shorter leukocyte telomere length but no association with telomerase gene polymorphisms in Han Chinese males.

OBJECTIVE

Benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) is an age-related disease, occurring in >70% of men of age >60. Because telomeres and telomerase play a key role in aging and age-related diseases, and certain telomerase gene single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) are shown to be associated with the susceptibility to age-related diseases, we wanted to determine the relationship between BPH and leukocyte telomere length (LTL) and telomere length-related single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of the telomerase holoenzyme genes.

METHODS

Peripheral blood was collected from both BPH patients and age-matched healthy male controls and genomic DNA was extracted. rs2736100 and rs2736098 at the and rs12696304 at the locus were analysed using pre-designed TaqMan SNP genotyping assay kits. LTL was determined using qPCR.

RESULTS

Patients with BPH had significantly shorter LTL (1.231 ± 0.532 vs 0.899 ± 0.322, P < 0.001). The genotyping results show similar frequencies in rs2736100, rs2736098 and rs12696304 between healthy and BPH individuals.

CONCLUSIONS

Shorter telomeres but not telomerase SNPs at the TERT and TERC loci, are associated with BPH. Short telomeres may promote senescence of a fraction of prostatic epithelial cells, while senescent cells in turn facilitate epithelial and stromal cell proliferation by the senescence-associated secretory phenotype mechanism, thereby eventually leading to BPH development.